Penetration Testing and Network Defense

Introduction

The first “hackers” emerged from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1969. The term originally described members of a model train group who would “hack” the electric trains to increase the speed of their trains.

Today, the term has quite a different meaning. When people think of computer hackers, they think of computer experts who are adept at reverse engineering computer systems. They might think of malicious hackers who aspire to break into networks to destroy or steal data, or of ethical hackers who are hired to test the security of a network. Often, these ethical hackers, or penetration testers, mimic the same techniques as a malicious hacker.

The need for penetration testing is simple. The best way to stop a criminal ...